Death Wish is a Very RareInstant Spell belonging to the Death Magic realm. It may only be cast on the overland map, and requires no target. For the base Casting Cost of 500, the spell forces every single Normal Unit and Hero belonging to each rival wizard (including Neutral units) to make a Resistance roll. Any unit that fails this roll is instantly destroyed.

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Death Wish assaults all enemy units simultaneously with a sudden blast of Death magic. Any Normal Unit and Hero that does not succeed a Resistance roll is slain on the spot. This affects all enemy and neutral units regardless of their location.

When Death Wish is cast, each Normal Unit and Hero that does not belong to Death Wish's caster must make a a separate Resistance roll. No penalty is applied to the unit's Resistance score for the purposes of this roll.

Any unit that fails its roll is instantly destroyed, regardless of how healthy it is, how many figures it contains, and regardless of any immunities it might possess.

This spell automatically targets all enemy Normal Units and Heroes on the map, regardless of where they are - including neutral units. Even units in unknown parts of the world, on the other Plane, or garrisoned within Towns are affected by this spell. The only units immune to this spell are the caster's own, as well as any Fantastic Units. Chaos Channeled units count as normal for the purposes of this spell, and may be slain by it accordingly.

Note that units with a Resistance score of 10 or higher will never be destroyed by this spell, as they can never fail their rolls. Fortunately, very few Normal Units have such high scores (Heroes tend to have high Resistance though, once they gain some Experience or Items).

Death Wish may only be cast on the overland map, for a basic Casting Cost of 500. The spell requires no target - it will immediately attack all enemy units answering to the criteria outlined above.

The game offers no feedback on unit loss, unless the player's own units were subjected to an enemy's Death Wish (in which case a scroll message will show which units were lost). Visual inspection may be required to tell how many units were lost by any enemy force.

Any unit that is killed by this spell will disappear. If all units in any stack are destroyed this way, the entire stack disappears from the overland map.

As a Very RareDeath spell, Death Wish may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least 3Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least 10 Spellbooks.

Death Wish may not be acquired at the start of the campaign regardless of how many Spellbooks the wizard possesses. It must either be Researched during the game, or acquired through other means.

Wizards with 3 to 9 Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to ResearchDeath Wish during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Death Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With 10 or 11 Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting.

With at least 3 Spellbooks, the Death Wish spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell.

However, Death Wish is possibly even better, since it does not target the caster's own units, thus only reducing the strength of all rival wizard armies. This can confer a huge advantage to Death Wish's caster!

Naturally, this spell is extremely effective against any wizard who relies primarily on Normal Units, as many of them will disappear each time this spell is cast. This can render that wizard's towns vulnerable to invasion, and it may take many turns for a wizard to replenish his forces.

Life wizards are often greatly threatened by Death Wish, as they tend to rely on Normal Units. Furthermore, because the spell takes effect on the overland map, units stacked with various Life creatures do not get the bonus to Resistance often given by these creatures. This makes them easier to kill than in actual combat.

It may be a good idea to save up some Mana to cast this spell several times in a row. This will virtually empty the world of Normal Units, allowing its caster to gain a massive advantage over all other wizards for quite some time. Again, the best timing for this would be just prior to a massive invasion of a neighbouring empire, since Death Wish will often leave many Towns partially or even completely unguarded. Move in before the enemy can create new units to replace the ones he lost.